SALT LAKE CITY — Four days after they were married, Ryan and Michelle Avila embarked on a one-year honeymoon around the world.
The Avilas were married on June 6, 2015, and they returned from their yearlong travels in June 2016. During that time, they visited 18 countries on four continents, Michelle Avila said.
“We … went to parts of Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, parts of the Middle East, Europe and Morocco,” she said. “That was our only touch of Africa was Morocco.”
A lot of people have asked Michelle, 27, and Ryan, 29, how they were able to afford taking off for a year to travel around the world, according to the Avilas.
Michelle Avila said it’s shocking how expensive it is to live in Utah, considering all the expenses one has to pay, including mortgage or rent, utility bills, car insurance and more. Their biggest expense was flights, but other than that, their travels were pretty inexpensive for the most part.
Prior to their trip, the couple worked a lot and kept saving money. They lived off their savings for the first four months of their trip, and they ended up working in Australia for five months and made some more money. After living in and traveling around Australia for five months, they left and continued traveling for the remainder of the year, she said.
Before they left, they sold a lot of their possessions, including one car. They each own homes, so they found renters to live at both while they were gone, and they both had to quit their jobs, she said.
“Even though we had all these things kind of tying us down quote unquote here, I mean it still it didn’t stop us,” Michelle Avila said. “And there really shouldn’t be anything stopping anyone from following their passion, especially if it’s travel you should just go.”
The Avilas are writing a book about their experience; half of it will include stories, while the other half will inform readers how to travel cheap and smart, she said.
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